MANUEL PEREZ de la MESA

By DENNE GOLDSTEIN

What
makes Manny run? Is it a need to succeed or is it in his DNA? Or just
maybe he is one of those people who loves what he's doing and doesn't
consider it work. Whatever it is, Manuel "Manny" Perez de la Mesa has
been running all his life.

Perez
de la Mesa was born in Havana, Cuba. His father owned a few small
businesses, and as a hobby he would race cars both in Cuba and
internationally, on what is now the Formula One Circuit; his mother was a
working mom. But Cuba was in turmoil, and during those turbulent years,
Fidel Castro took control of the country. In 1961, the Perez de la Mesa
family moved to Miami, Florida. At that time, Manny was four years old,
with two younger siblings.

In
Florida, his father sold used cars and his mother worked in retail. It
was during these formative years that Manny learned a special work
ethic. It seems he’s had a job from very early childhood. During high
school he was active in sports—playing football and baseball. After
practice, he found time to get a job—any kind of job as long as he could
bring in a paycheck.

Following
his high school graduation, he took a full-time job and attended the
University of Miami, and then Florida International University in Miami
at night. In 1977, Perez de la Mesa graduated with a bachelor’s degree
in business administration, and he did it in three years while holding
down a full-time day job. He was 20 years old.

This work ethic should have given anyone that knew him then a glimpse of things to come.

Perez
de la Mesa landed a full-time job with Sea-Land, a company owned by
R.J. Reynolds Industries. When he was transferred to their New Jersey
headquarters, he enrolled at St. Johns University in New York, where he
attended classes at night and received his MBA. After his stint in New
Jersey, he was transferred back to Florida to become a division
controller for Sea-Land Americas.

In
1982, after declining two previous job offers, Perez de la Mesa joined
IBM. He spent five years with IBM, when RJR (then having acquired
Nabisco and renamed the company RJR Nabisco) courted Perez de la Mesa to
return, and after much deliberation, he rejoined RJR in their Del Monte Division. “It was the toughest career change decision I ever had to make,” said Perez de la Mesa.

He
joined Del Monte on the fresh fruit side where, after a year involved
in re-defining the strategic direction, he was put in charge of
production operations in Latin America. He moved to Costa Rica, where he
lived for two years, then on to Santiago, Chile; finally, in 1991, he
moved back to Florida, where he became vice president of operations.
During this period with Del Monte, RJR Nabisco was purchased by KKR for
$29 billion, in what was then the largest corporate transaction ever.
Fresh Del Monte, in turn, was sold twice in 1990 and again in late 1992.
Late 1993 seemed the perfect time to make another change.

At
that point, Perez de la Mesa was 36 years old; he had moved nine times
over the course of 17 years. It was time to settle down.

Watsco
was a manufacturer of refrigeration controls who partnered with Rheem
to purchase a heating and air conditioning wholesale supply company,
with sales of $60 million annually. Perez de la Mesa was offered the
position to run the distributorship. During the next year-and-a-half, the
distributorship grew substantially. The chairman of Watsco then asked
Perez de la Mesa if he thought there was room for more company growth
through acquisitions and organic growth.

Perez de La Mesa told him it could be done.

Watsco
bought out Rheem’s position in the distributorship, eventually sold off
the manufacturing and concentrated on acquiring and growing the
wholesale distributorship business. Perez de la Mesa was content working
at Watsco. He settled down with his family in Florida and was beginning
to enjoy watching his children grow. He got involved in their
sports—even helping as an assistant coach.

But
time waits for no one; he was again being courted and recruited to head
up a public company, but he kept turning down the position. The
chairman of SCP was retiring and Perez de la Mesa agreed to look at the
position again. In 1999, he took over as president of SCP. By the time
Perez de la Mesa left Watsco, they were doing $1.3 billion annually. SCP
POOLCORP is a wholesale distributor for pool components and supplies,
and its volume was $450 million annually.

Manny
Perez de la Mesa had his work cut out for him, but his experience told
him he could grow the business. With only a small percentage of the
population having pools, he saw an opportunity for growth. In the 11
years that Perez de la Mesa has been at the helm, SCP POOLCORP grew to
$1.9 billion at its peak. Since the recession, sales have slid a little,
but it’s still a $1.6 billion company today.

In
addition to growing POOL- CORP, Perez de la Mesa was looking at
businesses in other fields. He saw that wholesale irrigation
distribution was similar and had the same characteristics. In 2005, SCP
POOL- CORP acquired Horizon Distributors, a Phoenix-based irrigation
distribution company.

Perez
de la Mesa saw opportunities in the irrigation business, and Horizon as
a platform for an acquisition base. “But it’s more than just stores,”
said Perez de la Mesa. “It’s having good people in position to move the
business ahead. We’re fortunate to have these great people at Horizon.”
Horizon has grown to 57 locations, from Arizona to Colorado to Utah to
Washington to Oregon to Idaho and California, Nevada, Arizona, and
Texas.

Perez de la Mesa envisions lots of synergy between POOLCORP andHorizon.
“In the outlying areas, where irrigation distributors are few and far
between,” says Perez de la Mesa, “we can put both company operations in
one location and serve both markets.”

Married
to Ana for the past 28 years, they have three children: Rosario, 25,
who is going to Columbia University for her MBA; Manuel “Max,” 23, a
school teacher, and Christina, 20, who is a junior at college.

Manny
Perez de la Mesa has been on a fast track for many years. The companies
he has been with have derived the benefits of a man who is driven and
passionate about what he does. Said Jim Ross, president of Horizon,
“I’ve never met a harder working executive. More importantly, his
contribution to the people he works with and his family is second to
none.”